GUN OWNERS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE IN THE LAST
GREAT GUN BATTLEOF THE 20TH CENTURY

A great battle is brewing in Americaıs
Heartland -- the last great gun battle of the 20th Century. This
fight, however, will not be with guns, but about guns -- about
guns and the rights of law abiding citizens to carry them. At
issue is the nationıs first binding statewide referendum on
concealed carry. At stake, ultimately, could be the future of the
Second Amendment rights of every American citizen.

In April 1999, the voters of Missouri will pass
judgment on a concealed carry ballot proposal whose victory -- or
defeat -- will set the stage for the continuing national battle
over gun ownersı rights well into the next century.

And while Missourians battle for a concealed
carry law, Missouri will become a national battleground for a
titan's clash between gun rights groups like the National Rifle
Association and anti-gun groups like Handgun Control Inc.

Battles between these organizations are nothing
new, but the direction they are taking may well be. Handgun
Control is still reeling from last yearıs unprecedented defeat
of Initiative 676 in Washington state. That proposal, a seemingly
innocent trigger lock law, was in reality a licensing law that
would have compromised the rights of law-abiding citizens to
acquire guns.

Behind in the polls by margins as great as 68
percent to 32 percent and with their backs clearly against the
wall, gun owners organized in an unprecedented grassroots effort
with the NRA to raise more than $3 million to inform citizens
about the deceptions in Initiative 676 and the loss of basic
freedoms that would have resulted from its approval. Despite
financial backing from the likes of software czar Bill Gates, a
comparatively liberal political culture and an initially lopsided
margin of public opinion against them, citizens advocating gun
rights and the NRA took to the streets, spread the word and
mounted a town-hall style campaign that ultimately crushed the
anti-gun effort.

The defeat of Initiative 676 was a smashing
blow against Handgun Control. The anti-gun organization had won
big nationally with the Brady law in 1992. But in September 1994,
the ban of guns that resembled military small arms resulted in a
national backlash that fueled the Republican takeover of Congress
in midterm elections just two months later.

Have soiled their nests nationally, anti-gun
groups turned their efforts to the state level. Initiative 676
was to have been the first great offensive on gun rights at the
state level. But what was to be a great victory for Sarah Brady
and Handgun Control turned into a nationally humiliating defeat.

One political analyst characterized the victory
of gun owners in Washington state as "turning Dunkirk into
Normandy without getting wet."

The defeat of Initiative 676 was a defensive
victory to save existing rights of gun owners. Now, pro-gun
groups are taking the offensive to win new rights in Missouri as
they join with the NRA for an unprecedented battle to reclaim gun
rights that have been denied law-abiding citizens in that state
since 1875.

Missouri is one of only seven states with
absolutely no system by which any law-abiding citizen can obtain
a permit to legally carry defensive firearms under a coat or in a
purse. Even the ability of certified and commissioned police
officers to carry weapons off duty is without statutory basis.
For citizens, the concealed carry even of stun guns and chemical
sprays is prohibited by law.

For six years, a small grassroots coalition of
gun rights groups in Missouri has relentlessly lobbied the state
Legislature for a permit system that would enable citizens to
carry concealed handguns legally.

This effort, however, has been futile in a
state where the chief executive is a close confidant of the
Clinton presidency and the upper chamber of the Legislature
refuses to limit debate, allowing a single senator to talk any
bill to death.

The gun owners have grown weary of fighting
anti-gun groups ranging from Handgun Control -- in 1996, Jim
Brady personally called lawmakers the day of a final vote on a
concealed carry measure urging its defeat -- to a police chiefıs
association whose state president co-authored a booklet on how to
defeat concealed carry.

With each annual effort, gun rights opponents
turned legislative stalemates into a defeat for gun rights
advocates. The breaking point -- for six straight years -- has
been a public referendum. Referendums in Missouri are common, but
gun owners there have steadfastly refused to put to a public vote
what they believe to be a most fundamental right.

But a right denied is no right at all. And it
is difficult to argue against democracy in America.

Now, pro-gun groups in Missouri have raised the
stakes, armed themselves with democracy and called out Handgun
Control for a showdown in April 1999.

On May 15, the Missouri gun coalition won a
decisive, last- minute battle to move the concealed-carry measure
out of the legislature, past the governor and directly to the
people. If approved by voters, law-abiding citizens could obtain
permits to carry concealed weapons legally after passing criminal
background checks and taking 12 hours of training.

It will be the first binding statewide
referendum on concealed carry in the nationıs history -- and the
next major national battleground for gun groups like NRA and
Handgun Control Inc.

For the proponents of gun rights in Missouri it
is the equivalent of the Battle of Concorde. They are undertaking
a winner-take-all blitzkrieg with their sights set on the
greatest offensive pro-gun victory since the Second Amendment was
ratified.

For Handgun Control, a second major defeat in
as many years would be devastating to its efforts to raise money
and pass further restrictions on the rights of gun owners at the
national or state level.

As the battle plans are drawn for the Missouri
Referendum -- the last great gun battle of the century -- both
sides gird themselves for a conflict that neither can afford to
lose. For the victor, the spoils of the battle will be the
ability to control the future of gun rights in America as America
enters a new and uncertain century of freedom. And for the
vanquished, the future will be uncertain indeed.